Step ‘N Blue

Bucky Halker and fellow jack-pine savages doing his originals in an 8-track studio on the shores of Lake Superior.

I call this the “8-track special.” We recorded it on an 8-track machine that my friends Tom Blain and Mark McGinley had put into their studio in my hometown, Ashland, WI. After 15 years I still pull this out and listen to it. Sometimes I even like some of it! Good performances, to be sure. Also, I’d been writing a lot of new material in the 1984-1986 period and some of it still stands up– blues, R&B, and folky stuff. Yeah, of course, when you record on eight tracks you ain’t gonna get the big sound. You get bare bones and no frills.

With that in mind, listen to the drumming here from Joe Lindzius and the well executed parts on lap steel and dobro that Andy Dee did for me. Other friends did a fine job: Tom Blain and Don Schraufnagel on bass, Andy Mathias on sax, Lisa McGinley on background vocals, Joe DeRasmi on trumpet. Tom and Mark did the engineering and producing. Jack pine savages having fun playing music!